Gromnir

actually no. there is no good game design reason for making any one skill have such diminished value compared to any other. you can tailor the game world however you wish to fit system, so rationalizing after the fact is asinine. the black isle folks imagined the fallout world into existence. it had no intrinsic properties before they crafted their post-apocalyptic setting. black isle coulda' made their world howsoever they wished and we do not doubt they coulda' made internal rational with more numerous energy weapons or more useful barter-- to think otherwise is to insult the developers as having a paucity o' creativity that conflicts with the reality o' their fallout achievements. to have energy weapons skill and not make viable is simple bad design. and no, is not at all like complaining about lack of lightsabres... though thanks for the seeming requisite strawman nonsense. if there were a lightsabre skill and there were only enough lightsabre energy cells, crystals, parts, etc. so that we could use the lightsabre in the last 1/3 o' the game, then it would be the same. and why is intro movie meaningful? 'cause it is the only reasonable clue to a new player regarding what to expect from the fallout world. duh. guess the obvious ain't obvious to the zealots. there is nothing the least bit stupid about tagging energy weapons early given what the new player knows about fallout... which is nothing. lord knows (not referencing cain as "lord" btw) that having energy weapons skill available at character generation would be prima facie evidence to a n00b player that choosing energy weapons would be a viable choice for a game that is set in a post-apocalyptic world that includes guys tramping around in power armour n' such. duh again. HA! Good Fun! ps http://thesaurus.com/browse/non-viable synonymous means? *shrug* just doing our part to help educate. btw, the qualitative difference 'tween useless and non-viable in a crpg with limited points to distribute to skills and abilities is even more difficult to rationalize. pps arguing with cainists is doomed. at codex they overwhelm with numbers, but even so, am wondering how long we can maintain interest in repeating self as the cainist does the same.

ps to put hurlshot's tires and toilet into perspective, Gromnir took our bmw x5 into the shop this am. a couple years ago we finally traded in our old ford ranger pickup for a more fancy vehicle-- we miss our truck. Gromnir does have a second car, but it isn't for daily driving. anywho, the bmw were frequent not starting. we had hoped it were the battery that were the problem as that were the only cheap problem we could foresee. it were also the only thing on that computerized monstrosity that we could test and fix our self given the symptoms. we tested battery and that weren't it, so we dropped off The Beast at a local shop and waited for the bad news. bad alternator... and bad something else that sounded like a computer part rather than a car part. am kinda fuzzy on the problem 'cause our mind kinda went white-blank when we heard the amount we would be charged for repairs: $3,400. is not like we can't afford to fix the thing, but we is kinda a cheapskate at heart (save for when providing gratuities to food service persons) so we were nonplussed when we heard total monetary damage. $360 for a couple goodyear tires for an rv? we wish. HA! Good Fun!

warhammer, 40k or otherwise, has always appealed to Gromnir. 40k is not science-fiction as asimov or arthur c. clarke might define it, but the campy excess o' the grimdark setting is fantastic... and embracing excess is only possible in fantasy settings, and in the minds of the insane. sidenote: we watched at youtube. am sometimes having difficulty discerning how the list o' similar videos is propagated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fptGIgf4l3s got a dozen other warhammer videos, one link to barber's adagio for strings (specific recommended for us) and then the bike thing. HA! Good Fun!

all he needs is the love of a good woman to save him, yes? p00p. we keep forgetting this is a bioware game. all he needs is the love of a good woman, man, demihuman, darkspawn, demon, dragon, amphibian, or any o' a host o' other progressively implausible monstrosities and curiosities, to be saving him. and still no word on pc tactical view... 'cause is a secret. HA! Good Fun!

"Skills aren't balanced, that's the beauty of them," nope. that is bad game design. is no reason why points in outdoorsman and barter should be o' less value than lockpick or science. is bad design that church of cain has re-imagined, inexplicably, into a strength. is no way a first time player o' fallout should be expected to know that he is gimping his player for the sake o' your beauty. and you is seriously gonna quibble 'between useless and non-viable? ... that is rich. "This is how it should be, energy weapons are rare, expensive, and harder to find ammo for, if you want to have a combat orientated character in the early game, you're not going to rely on energy weapons." uh... why? is no freaking reason why the guy choosing energy weapons should be having an effectively useless weapon for first 2/3 of the game... then suddenly find he has arguably the best weapon skill. is nothing in the intro movie that tells us that energy weapons ain't viable (useless) for 2/3 of the game. let a guy find out through hours o' gameplay that energy weapons is a great endgame weapon but useless at start is not beautiful-- is idiotic. is nothing that would destroy the fallout world if energy weapons were more plentiful but relative weaker... save for in the minds o' the Followers o' Cain. one must not question canon. the absurd snobbishness o' the fallout faithful is matched only by their absurd obtuseness. a horribly imbalanced system is not a strength unless you is in vegas, and you are the house. HA! Good Fun!

am loathing hot temps. we did roofing supply during summers in high school. got paid by the square meant half the guys were abusing greenies. stand on tar paper and slats of house with 12 (or worse) pitch as stacks o' 30lbs 'o concrete or ceramic tile is thrown at you by a toothless moron. go through a pair o' gloves every couple o' days no matter how much duct tape you use to reinforce. miserable job made worse when temps hit 100 degrees. we learned to hate the heat. going to arizona and new mexico during the summer for a vacation? is pretty much our definition of madness... along with ketchup on hot dogs. HA! Good Fun!

respec just so you can optimise and create your idealised character while playing the game seems like bad design to me as well. I've seen this sort of stuff in pnp where a player realises they should have chosen X instead of Y. They're character is still playable but not as good as the Munchkin they could have created. Might as well follow a powergamers guide that will eventually hit the internet. It can also open up exploits and make the game easier. For instance, in Fallout, you only put so many points in STR because the Power Armour can get you up to 10. If you put more points in STR before you get that power armour, then the game can be easier up until that point than if you only put in a lower amount of STR. But the downside is you've now wasted points once you do get the Power Armour. If you respec, lower your STR, and get the Power Armour to get your 10 STR, you've now exploited the game. High STR at the start to make it easier and lowered it to an amount where the Power Armour gets you to 10 later in the game. is amusing that you use an example o' poor fallout balance to show how a respec can be exploited. am s'posing you don't realize the irony. IF abilities, skills and other character generation options is actual balanced well, then there wouldn't be a need or desire for respec. as we noted already, some exploits and fails is inevitable as complexity increases-- is axiomatic. nevertheless, is only 'cause developers create some inequity that we end up with opportunities for exploit. am suspecting that there were probable some kinda exploit for da:o made possible by respec. we never got into the theorycrafting o' da:o mechanics, so we cannot say that respec were free o' exploits. that being said, we found the respec potions' inclusion to be extreme beneficial in that game. the actual game mechanics o' da:o were hidden. abilities would give bonuses, but as we didn't understand how the internal numbers were being calculated, relative values of bonuses were likewise hidden. in addition, the community invariably discovered many bugs before bioware had a chance to fix such things. some abilities were not working properly and giving no benefits at all. am recalling one or two early archer builds were hampered by some serious bugs. before bio could fix, we were able to use respec to make an archer actual more useful than a party appendix. is funny that in an mmo, respec is considered essential, but in a sp it is considered exploitative by some. nevertheless, the only person a single-player can exploit in a sp game is the player himself, and the only way a player is able to exploit with respec is if the developer creates a poorly balanced situation. is all very odd. am getting that it "feels" like cheating to some purists even if they cannot properly explain their notions other than their ridiculous condemnations of "idiots and the lowest common denominator." HA! nevertheless, we can recognize how it might give a fuzzy feeling o' cheatymcbadness. some folks Will game the system with a single respec opportunity. that being said, due to bugs and the simple certainty o' errors arising in any complex system, more than a few players will be punished for making their character building choices. ... as 'tween the desire to prevent "cheating" in a sp game and providing a way to mitigate the anguish o' broken builds, am gonna suggest that choice should be easy for developers to be making. HA! Good Fun!

ah, one of the parishioners at the church of cain is arrived. how amusing. we will note that more than one obsidian developer has made the observations we contributed in the post above... so we was hoping some fallout yutz would cry "sacrilege" at our blasphemies. try convincing josh that energy weapons is useful early and that skills is balanced 'nuff not to be punishing ordinary and intelligent gamers as well as "idiots and the lowest common denominator." josh, for one, don't think too highly o' fallout balance, and as you is a backer o' poe and this ain't codex, you ain't gonna be able to, "sigh, and, with a piece of scripture, tell them that God (cain) bids us do good for evil." pillars o' eternity is specific rejecting your viewpoint and is opting for making the catalog o' character generation options equal viable if not equal powerful. and you is a poe backer, so congrats and enjoy a game made for the LCD. heck, we didn't even bring up how poorly balanced is the gifted trait 'cause you can still have fun in fallout without it. see, we need not argue with the fallout zealots 'cause you has already lost. troika is dead and while cain is at obsidian, your idol were cast down by Moses some years ago... or perhaps it were that troika finally ran out of publishers after failing to finish games in a timely fashion and then public complaining about the guys providing the money. am gonna concede that we has seen the videos o' the ten minute speed runs o' fallout, so am guessing that getting energy weapons with enough regularity so as to be a viable main weapon is indeed possible "early" in the game, but only with the kinda bs pre-knowledge that kinda makes your suggestion as absurd as the quickie run of fallout. nevertheless, is curious that only from codexians and nma folks who has been preaching to the choir since before the turn o' the century that we is getting this nonsense. am thinking that is one o' the strengths o' cults. if you say something over and over again surrounded by other members o' the faithful, eventually you can make an absurdity into a Truth. you just gotta squint your eye up real tight and believe... or is that how you learn to fly... y'know, from peter pan? HA! Good Fun!

Yeah... that's something Bethesda offers (to my complete and derisive irritation) ~at least on one side; but on the other side... There is the understanding that their flawed design almost requires it. I use the save to start a new game, because of the tedium caused by starting a new game via the menu. I find the invitation to revoke any and all commitments made of the PC, as a rather insulting thing to include in an RPG ~when done after the game has commenced. It seems cheap. It cheapens the experience IMO. The problem with min/maxing for the best/ or smoothest build is that the characters then seem to lack any character. Players who discover [online] to always take or avoid some aspect of the game [skills/equipment/story path] are robbed of the chance to naturally fail... though granted, most of them likely won't understand why anyone would want to fail. It's a shame that it can't be explained without a lecture, or to players that take the PC's failure personally ~as if it somehow reflected on them as players. I am not a fan of respec options for characters; not if they recant on prior established facts. Adding, or changing a development path is fine though. It's at least sensible that a "thief" or "paladin" might change careers (even swap careers ), but not that a thief ~suddenly never was one, or that a slow and/or clumsy paladin ~suddenly always had been adroit and agile from birth. to "naturally fail" 'cause o' bad game design is just plain stupid. sorry, but the purists who love how you can create a complete borked character in fallout is the most obtuse bunch o' rpg fans we has ever had the misfortune o' dealing with. being able to make a bad character by picking nifty sounding abilities, talents, skills, etc., is horrible game design. you didn't know that taking energy weapons were useless for the first 2/3 o' the game? but hey, at least you got outdoorsman and barter to fall back on, yes? well that just makes fallout kewl, right? nope, it makes it broken. spend 10 or more hours figuring out that some builds is horrible is Not a kewl feature, although the cainists keep trying to convince us o' such nonsense. d&d gots tome after tome o' books so that we is knowing before we ever play a d&d crpg what we should expect... although troika and other developers still managed to surprise us with some quirky rules implementations. reach weapons for everybody! nevertheless, d&d, were having a known rules system, so we never needed respec. for fallouts and wasteland we weren't so lucky. uncovering the hidden mechanics o' fallout as one o' the first players who weren't benefiting from years worth o' detailed walkthrough and character building guides, were an exercise in tedium and frustration. if a game were genuine balanced and all builds were being equivalent enjoyable (NOT equal powerful) then we would have Zero complaints. but guess what, the fallouts, arcanum, wasteland and a host o' other games is revealing that game developers is not so good at making games that reward players for being creative or adventurous in character building. bad builds is not a feature. is bad design. the thing is, poe is new and new is never perfect. no matter how much diligence and planning goes into design, as complexity is increased, so does potential for exploit and fail. pnp d&d editions has years worth o' playtesting and we still get all kinda wackiness when new editions is released. front-loaded rangers and harm for 3e? we suspect poe will be sporting a complex new rules system for which mechanics will be obscure. will be inevitable that fail will occur. respec is a way to mitigate the damage o' such inevitability. as for wasteland 2... have already many complaints 'bout how some skills were seeming useless in the beta and much adjustment were needed to balance abilities, and truth to tell, wasteland 2 is less complex than a fair number o' crpgs we would care to mention. nevertheless, we still see some folks trying to sell us on the notion that poor design = FEATURE. go figure. HA! Good Fun!

dunno 'bout wasteland 2, but wasteland were very loosely story-driven. am knowing just how fanatical some fallout fans is and they not want to hear this, but wasteland and the fallouts had kinda thin main plot. in wasteland and the fallouts, story is your raison d'etre to play for the next hour or ten in only the most illusory fashion. am suspecting that playing the introductory areas o' a wasteland game a dozen or so times would be almost as fulfilling as playing the main game once in its entirety. heck, most o' our time spent in the fallout games were in starting areas as we created and abandoned MANY characters after maybe just less than 10 hours o' gameplay. HA! Good Fun! ps am hopeful there is some kinda respec option for poe. am suspecting that 1/3 o' our hours o' gameplay from fallouts and wasteland were replay starting areas til we got a character idealized... then repeat that each time we tried a new character build. allow for a single respec would SO improve situation for Gromnir and his gaming ocd. create a save at level X (past the intro) would maybe have been the single most useful improvement for us.

that may be more difficult with this game. if any class can fulfill virtual any role, it will be much more difficult to make viable class-specific weapons that is genuine useful. *shrug* am preferring for uber-weapons to be rare, but we observe that have whelm, wave and blackrazor be the three legendary weapons is meaning that if you ain't a hammer, trident or sword wielder, you is kinda up p00p alley. am not certain why the legendary weapons, if they is rare, cannot be scripted so as to be appropriate to the main character. HA! Good Fun!

it seemed to be sooper-groovy... for about 10 seconds. rare has we seen such quick and harsh revisionism regarding a major title. HA! Good Fun!

y'know, when Gromnir watched the dance-off, we couldn't help but think o' the following: there is some profanity, so if moderators censor, we complete understand. nevertheless, am giving a warning... or two... or is it three? poor jt were falling into the same social trap as stu. jt, next time you stand up for yourself and say, "No. Hell no! No fing way. Before you get me up on that stage you guys either need to get me well and goodly drunk, or that girl with the mic needs to become a hell of a lot prettier ." in any event, congrats to jt. we applaud your verve. HA! Good Fun!

Because showing the game in tactical view is not very good for seeing all the "awesome" graphics. That or it's **** and they want to let the player discover that for him self. am not certain what the reasoning is behind the I thought it looked better when it was last posted a couple of days ago! (Last page) Nobody commented on it when I posted it /foreveralone EDIT: nobody other than Gromnir am s'posing they do kinda show aspects o' tactical view played on a pc, but using console controls and interface... which don't really count as far as pc gamers is concerned. am recalling that da2 were somewhat similar. when we started getting gameplay video for da2 there were all kinda questions 'bout how da2 would look and play on a pc and biowarians would pretend as if they could not hear such concerns. it were kinda weird. why the biggie secret? why act as if nobody were asking about pc? in fact, it were almost as strange that virtual none o' the "journalists" who covered da2 during development felt compelled to ask 'bout pc-specific gameplay. bio released a demo for da2 and that were when we finally were getting answers 'bout pc gameplay... but what were with the three wise monkeys routine? why is same silence so noticeable regarding da:i? seems so... silly. 30 seconds o' pc gameplay showing differences in camera and tactical view compared to console. done. how tough is that? HA! Good Fun!

this is a wonderful excuse for having games never-ever improve. 'cause, y'know, if there were a better way, the smarty and clever developers woulda' come up with a solution already, yes? HA! Good Fun!

for shame, given your background you is no doubt aware that IRAC predates silly iraq by some considerable amount. many a naive university graduate with decent grades but nothing better to do with their lives has fallen into the trap o' law school and thus found themselves living the seeming perpetual nightmare o' IRAC: issue, rule, application/analysis, conclusion. everything becomes irac. pizza doesn't arrive in thirty minutes-or-less, and you think in terms o irac. that new detergent turned your boxers something other than a "whiter shade o' pale" and you reflect 'pon irac. is a sickness passed on to subsequent generations o' otherwise bright kids who didn't have the MCATs to get into a decent med school. oddly enough, there is a variation called KUWAIT: konclusion, utility, wording, answer, initiation, thoughts. the basis o' a conspiracy perhaps? HA! Good Fun!

the sad thing is, he probable got it from his older sister. poor kid witnessed mommy and daddy "wrestling" the other day and likely takes regular beatings from a girl, as is the case for most boys who has older sisters. at this rate, if he is lucky, he is gonna be a cher impersonator in vegas by the time he reaches twenty. am joking of course. am wishing hurl and his family well on his family sojourn. stay safe and have fun. HA! Good Fun!

Gromnir tried to play da:o on the xbox after playing on the pc. for us, play da:o on console were a bit like playing operation while wearing mittens. am certain we could manage either such feat, after a fashion. however, am unclear as to why anyone woulda wanna try either activity. perhaps to win a bet? HA! Good Fun!

assume for a sec that such nonsense does happen. would that be so bad? yeah, you could very simple put various limitations on respec so that it wouldn't be something one could functional use frequent. have copper cost. have xp costs. have a re-trainer available only at stronghold. allow only one respec per level or X number of levels. etc. is any number o' methods o' dealing with your concerns, but let us assume for a moment that respec has no such limitations other than perhaps a trainer located at stronghold and a copper cost. seeing as this is a single-player game, would it genuine matter if some number o' folks compulsively respec'd before every skill check? no doubt their hours o' gameplay would increase dramatically but if lephys or jack or bob did such a thing it would not bother Gromnir in the least. the notion o' arbitrary respec seems unlikely as people will be thinking their choices is good ones until proven otherwise, but even if you allowed such arbitrary changes, so what? dunno. in light o' your concerns, we don't see a problem with respec. is ridiculous simple to impose functional limits that address your concerns. we came up with numerous practical hurdles that would deter frequent respec after only a few moments o' reflection. additionally, as this is a single player game, why should we genuinely care? furthermore, if game is balanced well enough it shouldn't matter if you respec. there should be multiple ways to address every problem-- having numerous instances o' ideal routes is poor design. so perhaps availability o' respec would also promote better design on the part o' the developers. another win for respec. HA! Good Fun!

am knowing it ain't how you meant it, but total US dead in vietnam is something 'tween 45k and 60k depending on source used. US dead for iraq were less than 5k.

Agreed, but, the game was only being referenced as having a cost to re-spec (Mass Effect 2, at least). referencing cost o' me2 respec, you observed the following: "And, really, I don't see anyone ever legitimately having a reason to respec more than once." that is what prompted our reply regarding simplicity o' me2 character development. am agreeing that in a game with complexity similar to me2 there is far less legitimate cause for respec. ignoring pure aesthetics, choose class is most meaningful decision in me2. all other me2 choices is trivial. am not certain how deep character development will be in poe, but as complexity increases, so does the usefulness o' respec, particularly if the actual mechanics o' game is as obscure as they were in da:o. as complexity and obscurity increase, so to does the value o' respec. isn't simply a question of cost if one questions the potential need for multiple respec. HA! Good Fun!

regardless o' the "interstitial" verbiage, there were the suggestion in the josh interview that at least some narration and/or cut-scene content would be handled similar to the way it were done in iwd, with the drawn "slides." as we has always thought that iwd handled such narrative exposition better than any other ie game, we is seeing this as a positive... as long as there ain't too much exposition. HA! Good Fun!

ok, the next time some yutz wants to act as if referencing black isle success and failures is irrelevant, am gonna mention this interview... you know, seeing as how josh were the one to bring up black isle connections in this interview without being any such leading questions. HA! Good Fun! ps we edited out the video as unnecessary clutter. pps am not familiar with "interstitial" being used how is seeming used by josh. is this a term o' art in the industry, or something obsidian came up with 'pon their own?

Was that really a "cost," though? I mean, you could easily get that much element zero, with a little planet-scanning effort. You could get all element-zero-based upgrades and still have enough left over for at least a couple of respecs. And, really, I don't see anyone ever legitimately having a reason to respec more than once. I can't remember if you could do it in 3, either... I think you could? am thinking if poe is similar to mass effect 2 or 3 wherein only meaningful customization beyond class choice is deciding which 2 abilities not to be eventually maxing out, there will be considerable negative backlash. HA! Good Fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVEb2-SByPs from the replay, it looks like he barely touched the guy. yeah, the fact that strong didn't successfully do anything more than graze the croatian is a "weak" defense... pun intended. nevertheless, am thinking this clip is more a recognition o' yet another brilliant soccer flop than anything else. HA! Good Fun! ps apologies for "flop" language-- is possibly idiomatic and misleading. a "flop" is the term most frequent used in american basketball when a defending player pretends as if he were charged or run-over so as to be drawing a foul.